For starters, they've launched a new website at colorado.edu/cusg/ that makes it easier for students to access information about student government meetings and issues.

"(Transparency) is one of the biggest things we've been working on since we got into office," said senior Colton Lyons, president of student affairs. "We created the new website and we're gonna just put a lot of content on there. We can really advertise it to students, that way if they have questions it's kind of like a one-stop-shop for student government. It's been kind of confusing to navigate in the past."

The new website is updated frequently with the agendas and meeting minutes for Legislative Council, the branch of student government that meets weekly during the academic year and passes bills and resolutions. Lyons said he hopes students will look at those agendas and attend meetings if there's an issue up for discussion that's important to them.

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The student leaders are now using generic email addresses to make email archival and retrieval easier and so that institutional memory doesn't get lost each year when new student leaders are elected. In the past, student body presidents have used their personal email addresses for student government business.

Rather than put forward their own initiatives, the new tri-executives want to hear directly from students and then work on issues that their constituents are passionate about.

"We're here to serve them," said junior Madalena DeAndrea, president of internal affairs. "It's not about what we want; it's about what they want. We want to be good advocates for what students are hoping to address and we want to hear that."

CU also is hosting other student leaders from around the Pac-12 in early August to get a sense of what issues students are facing at other schools.

"One of our overarching goals is just getting students involved in student government again and (getting) ears on the ground, seeing what students really want," Lyons said. "We hope to have us and our executive staff go to as many student organization events as possible, that way we can interact with different students across campus and see what problems they're facing and how we can help address them."

In their bid to encourage more involvement with student government, the new tri-executives renovated their office space on the ground floor of the University Memorial Center.

The office used to be set up with individual desks assigned to various student government staffers. Today, most of those designated desks have been removed and replaced with a huge table and a whiteboard for collaboration.

The tri-executives hope student groups will use that space to work on projects.

Though they declined to discuss the events of this spring, the tri-executives said the drama of campaign season is completely behind them.

After being named the unofficial winners of the spring election, DeAndrea, Lyons and Marcus Fotenos, president of external affairs, came under fire from other student government campaigns for various election code violations.

Though the CU Student Government largely views itself as autonomous, the chancellor is ultimately responsible for the group. Student leaders control nearly $23 million in student fees annually, which they administer to the University Memorial Center, the Recreation Center and other units.

"We're ready to move on from all of that and work with everyone who has big issues they want to address," DeAndrea said. "The biggest thing is that we're here for the students, and I think we've really tried to make that the priority."

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